Soeharto named suspect in graft investigation

Soeharto named suspect in graft investigation

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on
Tuesday that former president Soeharto was fit enough and would
be questioned as a suspect in alleged corruption during his 32
years in power.

"We will have to look into the possibility (because) we
understand that he is now healthy again," Marzuki told reporters
after meeting with the House of Representatives Commission II for
legal and home affairs.

Marzuki said, however, that he would first have to study "the
immediate possibility of summoning Mr. Soeharto to physically
show up at the Attorney General's Office".

Soeharto visited the Attorney General's Office early this year
to declare his innocence when pressure mounted on B.J. Habibie's
government to investigate alleged corruption by his predecessor.

At the conclusion of the year-long probe carried out during
Habibie's 16-month term, then attorney general Ismudjoko
announced his office was dropping the investigation due to lack
of evidence. Soeharto was never named a suspect then.

Marzuki announced on Monday that he was reopening the
investigation into alleged corruption by the former longtime
ruler.

He said new evidence had been discovered to warrant the
resumption of the investigation into 78-year-old Soeharto.

Marzuki said evidence pointed to "a misuse of power and
authority" in issuing government regulations and presidential
decrees to amass funds for foundations linked to Soeharto, his
family and associates.

Marzuki later said that Soeharto had been named a suspect in
the investigation.

"We are reopening the investigation and by definition and as a
consequence, Mr. Soeharto is clearly a suspect in the case,"
Marzuki said, adding that the former president would be charged
with abuse of power.

One of Soeharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, was furious
with the attorney general, arguing that once an investigation was
officially dropped it could not be reopened.

Juan contended that Marzuki's move was politically motivated,
and had nothing to do with his desire to uphold the supremacy of
the law.

Marzuki, however, defended his move on Tuesday, saying that
his decision to reopen the investigation into Soeharto was "based
purely on new findings".

"I do not quite agree with it (Juan's comment), but if he
means that this decision is widely supported by the public then,
yes, that's a fact," Marzuki said.

Earlier in the day, Marzuki told legislators that his office
had a strong legal basis to resume the investigation into
Soeharto.

"The policy to drop the investigation due to insufficient
evidence (in October) was only a temporary decision and that
decision did not rule out the possibility of reopening the
investigation should new evidence be found in the future,"
Marzuki said.

Soeharto has been twice hospitalized this year for a stroke
and intestinal bleeding.

His lawyers had said Soeharto was in poor health and unable to
speak, but he appeared in good health last month when he visited
the tomb of his late wife Tien in her former Central Java
hometown of Surakarta.

When asked whether Soeharto's children would also be
questioned in the renewed investigation, Marzuki said: "We are
not ruling out possibilities, if the investigation leads to that,
then that would be a consequence of the investigation." (byg)